Upytės pavieto žemės teismo elitas ir žemės teismo kasdienybė (1566-1588)

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Kasdienybė; Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė (LDK; Grand Duchy of Lithuania; GDL); Lietuvos Statutai; Teismai; Teisė; Teisėjai; Upytės pavietas; Žemės teismas; Courts; Everyday life; Land Court; Law; Officials; Statutes of Lithuania; The Grand Duchy of Lithuania; Upytė district.

EN1. The Upytė Land Court planned to start working in autumn 1566, but because of the confusion in the country it turned to be impossible to do. The oldest of the remaining land court dockets is of spring 1569-autumn 1570. 2. During the interregnum period, the Upytė Land Court did not function (from 1573 to 1574, and probably in 1576 too). In 1587-1588 there was the so-called United Kaptūrinis Pavietas Court (a court that functioned during the interregnum periods vvhen other pavietas - i.e. district or land courts were not functioning, and kaptura was a kind of hood members of this court wore in symbolic grief after the ruler's death) comprised of members and delegated representatives of the pavietas land and castle courts that substituted for officials not able to attend the court. 3. During that period the Upytė Land Court was based in Panevėžys. All land court officials worked in their posts except for one land court session of 1569 when a specially appointed person, under the oath, substituted for the land subjudge. 4. The remaining 4 dockets from this period (of 20 years) do not make a complete picture of the pavietas land court of that time, because none of land court session records of 1576-1577 and 1580-1583 survived (though other records show that, in most cases, such dockets were kept during these years). Besides, the existing dockets are incomplete (some sessions are missing).5. No less important than the adjudication of civil cases was the function of the notary land court dockets. In the analysed Upytė Land Court dockets notarial records (purchase/sale, donation, property trans90 fer, exchange acts recordings, and the transfer of similar acts from the Upytė Castle Court Dockets, or from other pavietas castle and court dockets) make up most of the documents. 6. In the period preceding the year 1588, 8 land court officials and 16 pavietas vaznys (bailiffs) were registered in Upytė. Few times lower officials of the Upytė Land Court were promoted to higher positions, and even were offered positions in institutions other than the land court (like of subcamerarius or 'steward', or marshal), or in other pavietas. There are two notable cases of the Upytė Land Court officials' promotion to the higher-ranking positions in Vilnius Land Court (J. Mlečka and J. Vizgirda). [From the publication]